Top 10 Facts about Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel by CDU Sachsen – Wikimedia commons

Top Ten Facts about Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is a retired German politician and scientist. She served as the chancellor of German from 2005 to 2021. She was born on 17 July 1954. Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner, in Hamburg, West German. She is the most powerful woman in the world. Also, she was the first chancellor of German.

She is the daughter of Horst Kasner and Herlind Kasner. In her childhood and youth Merkel was known among her peers by the nickname ” Kasi” Actually, the nickname was derived from her last name Kasner. In the article are the top ten facts about Angela Merkel.

1. She is of German and Polish descent

Merkel’s paternal grandfather Ludwik Kasner, was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity. He worked with the Berlin Police. He also took part in Poland’s struggle for independence in the early 20th century.

Ludwik married Merkel’s grandmother Margarethe. She was a German from Berlin. Margarethe relocated to her hometown where Ludwik worked as a policeman. Merkel has publicly mentioned her Polish heritage on several occasions and described herself as a quarter polish.

2. Her entire family are protestants

Protestantism is a form of Christianity that originated in the 16th century Reformation. It is a movement against its followers perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church. The protestants reject the Catholic doctrine of Papal supremacy.

Merkel’s paternal grandfather Ludwik Kasner, was originally a Catholic. The entire family though changed to Lutheranism when Horst was a child. Lutheranism is one of the major five branches of Protestantism. Angela was just 3 months old when her father received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow.

3. She was sharp in her studies

Merkel learned to speak Russian fluently at school. She was awarded prizes for her proficiency in Russan and mathematics. To be precise, she was the best in her class when it came to mathematics and Russian. She received the best possible average Abitur grade at the ISCED 3 of 1.0.

She joined Karl Marx University, Leipzig where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. After being awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986, she worked as a researcher and published several papers.

4. The fall of the Berlin wall marked influenced her into politics

Angela Merkel by European People’s Party – Wikimedia commons

It was during the German reunification that Merkel started pushing toward politics. The fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989, actually served as her catalyst to be a politician. However she wasn’t among the crowd celebrations that night, she became involved in the growing democracy movement.

She joined the new party Democratic Beginning (Demokratischer Aufbruch). In 1990, the then-party leader Wolfgang Schnur appointed her as press spokeswoman of the party. Schnur was expelled from the party a few weeks before the multi-party election in 1990 with the claims that she worked for the Stasi.

The party sank however it was a member party of the Alliance for Germany which won the election in a landslide. It was included in the coalition government where Merkel was appointed deputy spokesperson of the new and last pre-unification government under Lothar de Maiziere.

5. She was Minister for Women and Youth

Angela Merkel byOfficevonStetten – Wikimedia commons

Following the reunification in the German federal election of 1990, Merkel stood for election. She was successful in the election to the Bundestag in the parliamentary constituency of Stralsund – Nordvorpommem – Rugen, North Mecklenburg-Vorpommem.

She was backed strongly by the then CDU minister and state party chairman Gunther Krause. She won the election. After her entry into parliament, she was appointed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to serve as Minister for Women and Youth in the federal cabinet. The ministry was the smallest and least powerful.

6. She was Minister for Environment

Angela Merkel by Frankie Fouganthin – Wikimedia commons

In 1994, Merkel was promoted to the position of Minister for the Environment ad Nuclear Safety, The ministry gave her great political discernment. Actually, it gave her a platform in which she could build her own career. She was then the youngest cabinet minister.

7. She became General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany

Angela Merkel by European People’s Party – Wikimedia commons

After the Kohl government was defeated in the 1998 elections, Merkl was appointed Secretary-General of the CDU. The party was not though was no longer part of the federal government. Merkel advocated a fresh start for the part without Wolfgang Schauble his former mentor.

The reason for the fresh start of the party was because of the party funding scandal. The funding scandal compromised many leading figures of the CDU including Kohl and Wolfgang. She strongly criticized these leadership figures.

8. She was the Leader of the Opposition

Angela Merkel by European People’s Party – Wikimedia commons

Merkel was still the leader of the CDU when she became the Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag. This was after Stoiber’s defeat in 2002. Stoiber voted for Merkel. She supported a substantial reform agenda for Germany’s economic and social system. She also advocated German labor laws changes and argued that the existing labor laws made the country less competitive.

Merkel argued that German should phase out nuclear power less quickly than Schroderadministratiio had planned. She advocated for a strong transatlantic partnership and German-American friendship.

9. She won the 2005 national election in Germany

Angela Merkel byArmin Linnartz – Wikimedia commons

On 30th May 2005, Merkel won the CDU/CSU nomination as the challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Although CDU/CSU won the election, the result was so close. Both parties wanted chancellorship.

An agreement made a deal after three weeks of negotiations. The results of the negotiation were to be that Merkel would become the Chancellor and the SPD would hold 8 of 16 seats in the cabinet.

10. She helped in the European migrant crisis

German opposition to the government’s admission of the new wave of migrants was strong and coupled with a rise in anti-migration protests. Markel insisted that Germany had the economic strength to cope with the influx of migrants.

She reiterated that there is no legal maximum limit on the number of migrants Germany can take. Nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers entered Germany that year. However, while not officially limiting the influx numerically, Merkel tightened the asylum policy in Germany.

Angela Merkel who has twice been married to scientist husbands retired from office. She made her first semi-public comments about political affairs since leaving office. She left a legacy in Germany that a woman also can lead, and that she can be more lucrative than men.